Previous to this she was a researcher and academic assistant at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, where she defended her doctoral dissertation, entitled From Head to Foot Set in our Place: Sacred Space as the Expression of Religious Experience and Imagination. She retains her interest, from that work, in the continuing influence of St. Augustine and on the work of her doctoral supervisor, contemporary philosopher William Desmond.

She has also lectured in Philosophy in Rome, Italy.

She is interested in the ideas, art and architecture of the Middle Ages, issues surrounding philosophy of the human person, political philosophy, philosophy of culture, and the dynamic relationship between faith and reason in the catholic intellectual tradition.

Philosophical Aesthetics - of Art and Architecture
History of Philosophy (particularly Medieval)
Political Philosophy
Catholic Intellectual Tradition, including Literature
Ethics
Philosophy of Culture

Research and engagement

Book Chapters

"Shouts and Whispers: What Kind of Martyr Should a Catholic Writer Be?", Sandra Lynch & Nigel Zimmermann (eds.) Faith and Reason: Applications to Contemporary Problems (Wipf &Stock, 2015 (forthcoming)) to be published by Wipf and Stock.

(co-authored with Sydney Palmer) “‘What Do You Know of My Heart?’ The Role of Sense and Sensibility in Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” Chapter 2 in: The Philosophy of Ang Lee, Robert Arp et. al. (eds), University Press of Kentucky, 2013; 41-63.

“An Archaeological Ethics: Augustine, Desmond, and Digging Back to the Agapeic Origin,” In: Between System and Poetics: Themes in the Work of William Desmond, Ed. Thomas Kelly, Ashgate, 2007, 125-137.

Journal Articles and Proceedings

“Trees in the Garden: Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, and the Order of Justice”, Special Issue: “Gardens of Justice”, of The Australian Feminist Law Journal: A Critical Legal Journal, Volume 39 (2013) 3-20.

“Gifted Beggars in the Metaxu: a Study of the Platonic and Augustinian Resonances of Porosity in God and the Between,” In: Louvain Studies, Gregory Grimes (ed.), Vol. 36 (2-3) Summer-Fall, 2012; 256-281.

“On Keeping Truth in Style: On the Tradition and Scandals of Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Architecture,” Tradition: Friend or Foe of Freedom?, University of Notre Dame Australia (Sydney), July 4th, 2013.

“Liturgical Art and Architecture After the Council: What Works?”, The Great Grace: Receiving Vatican II Today, Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia, May 22nd, 2013.

“Reciprocal Nurturing at the Heart of Society: Motherhood vs. Surrogacy,” World Congress of Families (Sydney), May 18th, 2013.

“Toward an Anagogical Imagination: How Gothic Architecture Might Make Known the Things Unseen,” The Expressible and the Inexpressible, Biennial Conference in Philosophy, Religion and Culture, Catholic Institute of Sydney, October 7th, 2012.

“The Beginning that is already an end: Finding the Significance of Labyrinthine Travel,” Philosophies of Travel: Exploring the Value of Travel in Art, Literature, and Society, The Sydney Society of Literature and Aesthetics and the Department of Studies in Religion, University of Sydney, October 31st 2011.

“After God’s Own Heart”: The Interior Relationship Between God and David in the Books of Samuel,” The Bible and Philosophy: Rethinking the Fundamentals conference, The Shalem Center, Jerusalem, October 27th, 2009.

“Porous Being and Being Porous”, Study Day on God and the Between, Leuven, April 21st 2009.

“Elemental Microcosms: Sacred Space and the City”, UCSIA expert seminar: The Sacred in the Metropolis, University of Antwerp, March 24th, 2009.

“Enchanted Spaces of Imagination: Understanding Benedict XVI's Vision of Ecclesiastical Architecture”, The Grandeur of Reason: Religion, Tradition and Universalism, The Centre of Theology and Philosophy, Rome, Italy, September 1st, 2008.

“‘Man is in place from head to foot’: Creatio, Conversio, Formatio as the structure for an Augustinian Conception of Sacred Space”. Structure, Space, and Meaning: The Walls and Portals of Premodern Worlds, 31st International Patristic, Medieval and Renaissance Studies Conference, University of Villanova (USA), October 14th 2006.

“William James’s Idea of Crass Supernaturalism and its Consequences for the Religious Experience”, Belief and Metaphysics, Centre of Theology and Philosophy, Granada, Spain, September 16th 2006.